Aura Tracer
Aura Tracer is a young adult unicorn nomad currently visiting Ponyville. His primary talent is in cartography, and knows several spells pertaining to map-craft. Due to the environment he was brought up in, he also has training in sleight of hoof, and has taught himself several skills for adventuring. He is also a semi-skilled spellcaster, and can cast most apprentice level spells provided he has a written copy of it. Personality Aura's personality is widely varied. He tries hard to not get close to others until they've proven themselves somehow, as he fears that any trouble that he may find himself in will also endanger them, and will likely try to push others away from him until that moment of proof has been seen... Unless of course he needs something from that particular pony; but then they will likely have proven themselves just by being useful to begin with. Aura can appear highly untrustworthy, but he does have a strong sense of honor and chivalry, and will make sacrifices for those who need help, regardless of how well he knows them... Skills Aura has an extremely varied skills set, and has many abilities, not all of which are included in his primary talent. His primary ability, is of course, his skill at cartography. Regardless of spells used, Aura can accurately draw a scale map of any place he's been to, and can remember exact details about locations just by looking at a map he's made. His primary spell is similar to a GPS, and can give him his exact coordinates on the planet, elevation, and also magnetic north. By focusing harder, he can also amplify the spell to give him a mental topography of his surroundings for up to 5 miles (Just 2 miles above maximum visual range in daylight), but casting it very far is also an extremely intensive thing; probably equivalent to lifting 25 pounds per mile viewed. Over time and training, he has picked up several other skills, such as lock-picking, rappelling, pick-pocketing, and is skilled and dodging or disarming traps. He is also a semi-skilled spellcaster, and can cast a variety of spells provided he has a written copy of it somewhere; often times, this comprises of carrying around a version of the spell printed on playing cards. (Sort of like a set of flash cards for magic spells) Probably the most interesting skill he's learned though is his knowledge of hypnosis, which was his main act when he was a part of a gypsy troupe. Please note, that this is /non-magical/ version of hypnosis, and is NOT mind control. Using hypnosis, he can help induce changes in another pony's body or mind; but only if the change is something they also desire. For instance, he could help a pony overcome their fears for a time, or even help them overcome the pain of an injury (mental morphine); but he could not force them to act like a chicken unless they wanted to act like a chicken. (For instance, if they might would act that silly among friends, he can give their mind and excuse to do so. When others ask, the pony can truthfully reply "he hypnotized me," and excuse their silliness.) He could not, however, force them into following him or giving him something they owned; nor could he hypnotize somepony into attacking another pony. In short, if it violates their will, it /can't/ work, and never will. He can't even achieve mind control through magical means. Relationships Background Beggarnet Beggarnet is Aura's nickname for the web of contacts and informants throughout Equestria that him and his gypsy family use to learn about the various happenings in the regions. Most users of Beggarnet use it to keep tabs on important individuals, or case out neighborhoods for their businesses; but Aura mostly uses it to try and get leads on newly found ruins and treasures. Aside from himself and Shillelagh though, there is no such web present in Ponyville; mostly because of how often the princesses visit there. (Most other users steer clear of doing business where the government is prone to just pop up at random.) As such, his ability to do look ups on ponies and things in town is very limited, and he doesn't use it often. However, due to their popularity, the 'net does know that all six of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony live somewhere in town, but other than that and their names, Aura actually knows nothing about them. Meta/Trivia Aura may seem to be overpowered at first, but really, his skill set can be quite reasonable if you compare it to the real world. In the real world, a trained thief would have most of the skills he has to some form or another; and since magic is sort of like science in the pony world, his knowledge of spell craft is probably equivalent to a B in highschool science, and a low level knowledge in bypassing electronic security... And let's face it, if you know the basics of a computer, you could hack it if you had read a manual on how to do so, and perhaps had a cheat sheet with you. Hypnosis /is/ something in the real world too, and Aura's player actually knows how to hypnotize himself and others. He learned a bit about it in a psychology course, and then read more about it from books... He also believes that if he can learn it, a pony who grew up around another who had the skill, and depended on the skill to get money for his family most certainly could pick up the skill. Category:OCs Category:Unicorns Category:Stallions